Eusocial societies are characterized by a clear division of labour between non-breeding workers and breeding queens, and queens often do not contribute to foraging, defence and other maintenance tasks. It has been suggested that the structure and organization of social mole-rat groups resembles that of eusocial insect societies. However, the division of labour has rarely been investigated in wild mole-rats, and it is unknown whether breeders show decreased foraging activity compared with non-breeding helpers in natural groups. Here, we show that, in wild Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis), breeders show lower activity in foraging areas than non-breeding group members. Both breeders and non-breeders displayed variation in activity across the different seasons. Our results suggest that group living allows social mole-rat breeders to reduce their investment in energetically costly behaviour, or alternatively, that the high cost of reproduction in this species forces a behavioural trade-off against foraging investment.

真社会社会的特点是非繁殖工蚁和繁殖蚁后分工明确，蚁后通常不参与觅食、防御和其他维护任务。有人提出，社会鼹鼠群体的结构和组织类似于真社会昆虫社会。然而，很少对野生鼹鼠的分工进行研究，并且与自然群体中的非繁殖帮手相比，繁殖者是否表现出较低的觅食活动尚不清楚。在这里，我们表明，在野生达马拉兰鼹鼠(Fukomys damarensis) 中, 繁殖者在觅食区的活跃度低于非繁殖群体成员。育种者和非育种者在不同季节的活动中都表现出变化。我们的研究结果表明，群居生活允许社会鼹鼠繁殖者减少对高耗能行为的投资，或者，该物种的高繁殖成本迫使对觅食投资进行行为权衡。